Tuesday, November 26, 2013

*SUBMISSION WINDOW HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL DECEMBER 4 at 8 AM EST. ENTRIES GO LIVE DECEMBER 4 AT 10 AM AND THE CRITIQUE TIME FRAME ENDS AT 8 PM EST DECEMBER 9.*

First I must apologize for this being late; Not ten minutes after posting my birthday blog entry, I got news that my beloved Nana has been diagnosed with end stage cancer. As I've said countless times, 2013 has been horrible, and receiving this news on top of everything else I've been through is crushing, to say the least. She is one of the most important people in my life, and this news is sudden and devastating. But, because she would want me to continue doing what I do, I'm keeping positive and appreciating the time I have left with her. Which will, understandably, cause me some more distractions and time away from the site, so please continue to be patient with me.

My nana has taught me so much, especially in the strength and courage department, so as much as this is trying to destroy me, I won't let it. She wouldn't want it to, especially after all the progress I've made to get back on track. So for her, I will continue move forward, to honor her and her wishes for my success and happiness.

This month's critique round will be called "Under the Influence". This particular round is especially for those of you who entered Baker's Dozen 2013, but didn’t receive the response you’d hoped for or maybe don’t understand why yours wasn’t chosen. The anticipation is over, and now it's time to get back to work. Here is your opportunity to see what might have gone wrong and to help others with the same. I'll accept up to 50 full entries (logline and first page). Hopefully, the feedback you'll receive here will give you what's needed to get your work chosen for the next contest or auction (Secret Agent is right around the corner!).

The catch? This round's critiques will be BLIND. A quote from my last blog post: "I've often wondered how much influence the first critique has on the ones that follow. Not saying everyone is following suit, but just like movie reviews, sometimes our opinions can be swayed, even if only a little, by what the first person who saw/read it said. So, when I post the entries, there will be a critique window. All critiques must be submitted during this time frame. But the catch is, no one but me will see the critiques until the time frame closes. When it does, I'll release the critiques from the queue for all to read. I think it will be really interesting to watch unfold!!"

So there you have it! Once the entries go live on Sunday, you will have until Wednesday December 4 at 10 PM EST to leave your comments. At that time, I will open the flood gates, releasing them for all to see.

This round I will accept all genres and it is one entry per person, per genre (So you can submit 1 adult, 1 NA and/or 1 YA/MG).

Starting now, please send submissions to ktcritiques [AT] gmail.com by 10 PM EST Saturday night, November 30. I will post them Sunday, December 1 at KTCROWLEY.COM for critiquing.

In the subject, please state “DEC BLIND ENTRY”.

Please list the TITLE, GENRE and your SCREEN NAME (I will not include screen names in the critique posts, these are for my purposes only. Your screen name is the name you'll use to critique others in the comments.) above your logline and 250 words (format it the way you normally would). Please do not stop in the middle of a sentence. If it goes over the 250 limit by a couple of words, that's fine. If you stop at say, 235 words, that's fine, too. As for the logline word limit, I'll make the cut 75 words, but please note, most loglines should only be a max 50-55 words, so keep in mind that less is more.

So your submission should look like this:

SCREEN NAME: Your Screen Name Here

TITLE: Your Title Here

GENRE: Your Genre Here

LOGLINE: (Logline here)

FIRST 250: (First 250 here).

A confirmation email will be sent, but it may not be right away. Only resend if you don't get one by the last hour of the submission window. Should I receive 50 entries, an email will be sent to notify you if you didn't make the cut and I will update this post to reflect an early closure, so get yours in quickly!

Please check your submission(s) carefully for typos, grammatical errors, etc. before submitting. Once the submission is confirmed by email, it is set to automatically post. Double checking it first will ensure your writing is critiqued appropriately. Also, please leave out "chapter one," chapter "titles", etc. Otherwise, I may count them toward your 250 and you could lose some of your first page entry.

If you enter, please critique five other entries, so that it's fair for everyone (if you enter multiple times, please critique 5 others for each one of your entries). And spread the word; the more critiques, the merrier! Let's help everyone involved get as much feedback as possible.

Good luck, everyone! I'm looking forward to seeing all the great writing and supportive critiques. Got questions? Post them in the comments or shoot me an email.

P.S. If you're not a follower of my blog, I'd love it if you'd follow my journey and join the fun! There are several ways via the right-hand side of the screen. I try to offer open critique rounds monthly to help writers like you perfect your work. Our already amazing writing community only gets better when we help each other. :)

Friday, November 22, 2013

At first, my plan was to go back to the beginning and rehash the hell I've been through--at least a recap. There is no need to relive that pain, the suffering, or the loss. I don't want to drag you (or myself) back down that dark hole I'd started thinking of as home. Instead, I'll tell you where I am now.

I thought I was lost, without a map or a compass, or even an idea of how to get back. I was wrong. I wasn't lost, I just couldn't follow the direction I needed to go. I didn't want to. Change is hard. It's terrifying. Letting go, accepting what is, moving forward when all you want to do is dig your heels in and refuse to move with time because you're not ready, is HARD. But time, life, moves forward whether you want it to or not. Amazingly, against all the odds I thought were against me, I've realized that. I've accepted that.

So today, I'm celebrating my birthday. Technically, I'm *gasp* 32 years young, but I'm considering this a first birthday of sorts. The K.T. Crowley that started this journey, she's gone, and she's not coming back. I guess that, even though I knew this and said it out loud countless times, I never actually believed it until recently. But she left for a reason. She left so I could arrive, grow, learn, remember how to breathe and recover. And now, now I'm stronger. I see shades and colors I wasn't able to before, both beautiful and ugly. I have cut ties with most--if not all--the toxic people in my life, and I am trying to live in a drama-free, positivity only zone. I need to. I deserve to. Because life is WAY too short to deal with even an 1/8 of the crap I'd been dealing with, and if I've learned anything from my brother-in-law's death at the start of this year, it's to LIVE. APPRECIATE. FORGIVE AND MOVE FORWARD.

My wish list for myself is pretty simple now. One thing is to reignite my passion for writing, and I have. I partially have NaNoWriMo to thank for that, and my new editor, whom I'll introduce later in full fanfare. Another wish is to keep my eyes open, my head clear and my judgement impartial. Let rejection (especially of the subjective kind) slide, because everyone has to deal with it. In addition to letting rejection slide, I have to continue to learn from it, but not beat myself up when it happens. Those two things should never go hand-in-hand; they breed negativity like rabbits. Face challenges with feet firmly planted, refuse to get discouraged. And most of all, throw my hat in the ring completely. Not just at my feet, on the edge of said ring, nudging it timidly toward the center at a sluggish rate of progression. I have to be and remain 100% committed, like I was in the beginning. The old K.T. may be gone for good, but that factor carried over to my new self. It just took some time to discover it.

Now for some updates. My NaNo novel is ah-mazing, I'm so happy with it. It's an adult suspense/crime story in 3rd POV, all of which are brand-spanking new for me to write, so it's been challenging but fun. Just the change of pace I needed to feel fresh again.

My very first novel has a shiny glow, but still needs to be buffed by my fabulous editor one more time before it meets my standards.

My husband is back to full health after our 6 month ordeal! Yay!! We're planning a big move, with hopes of building our dream home in a wonderful place. More on that to come.

My boys are growing so fast; my oldest is in preschool now and my youngest is close to walking. They are the light of my life and I don't know how I would've survived 2013 without their precious hearts. I'm seriously the luckiest mom ever. I just wish I could slow down time because it feels like I blink and they're a year older. Another reason I try and appreciate every single moment with them.

The site will continue as it has, critique rounds and my random posts about things. Though I am really going to try to write posts much more often than I have been. Hopefully I'll have some interesting things for you.

That's it for now... Oh wait, no, it's not.

Blind critique round will be opening up for submissions on Monday!! What do I mean by "blind"?

Well, let me explain.

I've often wondered how much influence the first critique has on the ones that follow. Not saying everyone is following suit, but just like movie reviews, sometimes our opinions can be swayed, even if only a little, by what the first person who saw/read it said. So, when I post the entries, there will be a critique window. All critiques must be submitted during this time frame. But the catch is, no one but me will see the critiques until the time frame closes. When it does, I'll release the critiques from the queue for all to read. I think it will be really interesting to watch unfold!!

If you've never participated before, now is the time to join the fun, seriously. This is also an excellent opportunity to get feedback on your Baker's Dozen 2013 entry, because, yanno, even though we may not have made it in, we have to keep moving forward, and the best way to start is to identify what may have been the issue.

And with all of that said, I'm done for now. Love to you all, and have a wonderful weekend! <3